Step 1 - getting started

What is the Bliss Baby Charter journey

Our flowchart below shows you each step of the journey.

Key resources to get started

• Bliss Baby Charter Audit Spreadsheet
• Example of a completed audit for Principle 1
• View our best practice bank for ideas

Audit 1

The self-assessment follows a simple ‘RAG’ approach. Depending on your current systems and processes, your audit team will either rate your unit as green, amber or red against the standards.

Green: Fully delivering against all aspects of the criteria

Amber: Delivering some or most of the aspects but not all

Red: Delivering none or very few of the aspects required to fulfil that criterion

Evidence

If you self-assess yourself as being green for certain standards, you will need to provide detailed evidence to support this.

If you have assessed yourself as amber or red, you will need to explain why and make action plans that highlight what you will do to improve

Your audit team

Audit lead

Embedding the Bliss Baby Charter principles across your unit requires someone to take responsibility for its delivery. The audit lead should have good knowledge and experience of neonatal care.

They will support the project at each stage by:

• Organising team meetings and facilitating discussions.
• Monitoring and evaluating progress.
• Sharing updates with their Bliss contact.

Multi-disciplinary team

The audit lead should be supported by a multi-disciplinary team with experience of neonatal care. Some accredited units have found it helpful to assign team members to be responsible for an individual principle.

Your team may include:

• Nurses
• Consultants
• Speech and language therapists
• Physiotherapists
• Dieticians
• Bliss volunteers
• Parents

Facilitating parental involvement

This can be done in a variety of ways depending on what works best for your unit. You might consider:

• Direct involvement in the audit team
• A questionnaire
• A suggestion box
• A discharge survey
• A notice board
• The picker survey